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标题：Social and Information Relations in Networks of Small and Medium-Sized Firms
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作者：Cristóbal Casanueva ; José Luis Galán González
期刊名称：M@n@gement
印刷版ISSN：1286-4892
出版年度：2004
卷号：7
期号：3
出版社：D M S P Research Center
摘要：The current article considers the importance of the links existing between social relationsand relations of trust, on the one hand, and economic and business relations on theother, in networks of firms, particularly networks of small firms that have formed invol-untarily. Among these links, it is important to discover the way tacit and explicit informa-tion flows are established within the network and the conditions for them to occur. Weexamine these questions in a network of firms from the shoe industry using the methodsand concepts of social network analysis. With this in mind, we have analysed the com-plex network of small firms by breaking it down into subnetworks in order to better under-stand its general structure. Our findings show that economic relations (cooperation,commercial exchanges) and social relations (trust, friendship, kinship, information inter-changes) between the firms in the network are embedded within each other. The firmsof the network exchange tacit information only with those firms with which they maintainstronger social and business links. Information and knowledge are treated as a strategicresource that is only shared with those companies that are not direct competitors